This year, the state Board of Education added two new non-voting members: a public high school student and a former state teacher of the year.
Delaware Public Media’s Sophia Schmidt talked with that first ever student state school board member, Dorcas Olatunji, about what she has learned so far — and what she hopes to accomplish during her term.
The first student to serve on the State Board of Education is several months into her term— and hopes to accomplish much more before it is finished.
Charter School of Wilmington senior Dorcas Olatunji was appointed this spring by Gov. John Carney to serve as the first student representative on the state Board.
“I feel like one of the biggest issues are the quality of education by zip code,” said Olatunji. “I live in the Colonial School District and there’s only one public high school which is William Penn. So either your parents have enough money where you could go to a private school, or you play the game of the choicing system, like my parents did.”
Olatunji is working with the Board to develop a “student committee,” an idea she had before joining the Board.
“I’m hoping on creating some event that’s going to happen in each of the three counties that will bring students to the conversation and bring their perspectives and ideas to questions that align to the board’s priorities in order to funnel those ideas into what could be turned into a student agenda or maybe a student committee for the next student representative to run,” she said.
State Board of Education Executive Director Jenna Ahner says she is working with Olatunji create a timeline for her ideas around increasing student input to the Board.
Ahner adds Olatunji has contributed to conversations about student assessment and the Board’s development of a plan around Career and Technical Education.
“Dorcas has been really helpful in talking through what are the things that we might hope to learn in a career pathway, what are the skills that we might hope to learn that could contribute to college, career, both,” said Ahner.
Olatunji will serve on the Board until July 1.
